


Better than a Dream

by nonbinaryGhost



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: (previous tag is for the Grimmchild), Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Family Fluff, Name Changes, spoilers for the end of Fragile Hope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:53:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28802370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonbinaryGhost/pseuds/nonbinaryGhost
Summary: A second snowball pelted across the room. Scarlet was fast enough to turn out of the way of this one, so it only splattered against her shoulder instead of her mask. The very air around the Grimmchild began to waver with heat as she glared at Hornet over the counter, her narrowed eyes positively blazing.“You’re going to regret that,” Scarlet hissed.“I’d love to see you try and make me.”
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Better than a Dream

**Author's Note:**

> (Originally posted to tumblr)  
> This drabble takes place sometime after my fic _A Fragile Hope_ This is very much a fluff piece, but if you don't want any spoilers for the fix-it fic you might not want to read this one yet. There aren't any hints about how the events of _A Fragile Hope_ occur, but it does have some pretty obvious character arc spoilers. 
> 
> That being said:
> 
> The Grimmchild is now a teenager and uses she/her pronouns while going by the name Scarlet, and The Hollow Knight uses the name Hope

A blustering wind swept through the small room, carrying the scent of icy stone and snow. Hope shivered as the chill cut through the cloud of warmth from the heating oven and they glanced up from measuring out a cup and a half of flour. A red shape blurred through the narrowly cracked door before slamming the heavy wood shut against the wind with a bang. Hornet leaned back against the door and pulled her thick scarf down as she violently shook snow from her red cloak.

“It is far too cold for any self-loving bug to be out there,” she muttered under her breath and Hope silently chuckled as they added the flour to the mixing bowl. Today was Quirrel’s birthday, and the four siblings had decided they would surprise the adventurous pill bug with a cake and dinner tonight. Odds were good that he’d even forgotten about the special occasion. Hornet had been out making sure that Quirrel would be home at the selected time of surprise.

“What’s wrong,” taunted the Grimmchild, now going by the name Scarlet, from her place by the stove. “The great Hornet Protector can’t tolerate a little snow?”

Hornet scowled.

“I don’t need any flack from someone with literal fire for a heart.”

Scarlet grinned, the jagged smile cracking her mask in two, and she waved her wooden spoon at the bristling spider.

“I’m just saying, one might think someone from Deepnest would be a little more tolerant of the cold. Those caverns are downright frigid.”

“Oh, but the snow doesn’t bother you?” Hornet snarked. Hope noticed her secondary set of arms gather the lingering snow on her cloak out of Scarlet’s sight. Hope wondered if they should warn their adopted sister. But one look at Hornet’s stance told them they would only get caught in the crossfire if they intervened. Instead, they shifted away from Scarlet under the pretense of grabbing the eggs from the fridge.

“Of course not,” the oblivious Grimmchild stated, dramatically splaying her free hand over her chest. “As you said, the Nightmare Heart keeps me plenty warm and –“

_SPLAT_

A tiny, half-melted snowball whopped Scarlet full in the face and splattered the slush around the kitchen. Hope lunged forward to shield the bowl of batter with their body and watched their littlest sister go rigid in shock before yelping as the snow began to drip down her neck. Hope couldn’t hold back their laughter as Scarlet flailed around.

“Oh, I am so sorry,” Hornet teased with a smile in her voice, all four arms clasped innocently before her. “I thought you said snow didn’t bother you?”

The Grimmchild turned with a hiss, the snow that still clung to her mask sizzling into steam as her eyes narrowed into vertical red slits.

“Very mature,” she growled, her raspy voice holding a barely restrained anger. She pointedly wiped the snow away with a shake of her hands, even though there was little more than vapor left. Hornet leaned forward with a grating smile.

“And what are you going to do about it?”

“Absolutely nothing,” Scarlet claimed. “I have a cake to help Hope bake. Besides, I am far more mature than –“

A second snowball pelted across the room. Scarlet was fast enough to turn out of the way of this one, so it only splattered against her shoulder instead of her mask. The very air around the Grimmchild began to waver with heat as she glared at Hornet over the counter, her narrowed eyes positively blazing.

“You’re going to regret that,” Scarlet hissed.

“I’d love to see you try and make me.”

Hope rolled their eyes in exasperation as Scarlet vanished in a burst of crimson flame, reappearing behind Hornet to dive at her. Hornet clearly expected this and rappelled away on a thread of spider silk. Hope turned from the fight to eye the scorch marks on the stone floor and made a mental note to make Scarlet clean them up later.

There was a reason they had very little furniture made of wood.

Hope barely looked up at the crashes and hurled insults as they returned to baking. The water on the stove was well past boiling (likely hurried along by Scarlet’s burst of anger) and Hope clicked off the flame before pouring the hot water over the roughly chopped coffee beans waiting in the press. Coffee was a rare commodity, especially now in the winter, but Hope had made sure to buy a decently sized bag or two from the last merchant to pass through Dirtmouth. None of Hope’s siblings cared for the stuff, but Hope enjoyed the bitter earthiness.

A particularly loud _crash!_ literally shook the small house and Hope hissed as hot water splashed onto the back of their hand. Their actual hand. Great wyrm, why was it never their prosthetic that got caught in their sibling’s crossfire?

“Apologize!” demanded Scarlet as she lunged at Hornet.

“Only if you catch me!” Hornet laughed and leapt over the dashing Grimmchild, using her silk to swing up onto the loft the served as Scarlet and Ghost’s bedrooms. Scarlet crashed into the couch that Hornet had been standing upon, tipping the furniture to slam to the floor with a resounding bang.

A quiet creak from behind drew Hope’s attention from running cold water over their hand, and the trap door to the basement pushed up to reveal Ghost, their arms full of vegetables and mushrooms. They kicked the door to the basement shut and dropped their burden on the counter just as another clatter and more yelling filled the air.

“What’s going on?” Ghost asked, their fingers shaping the words carefully.

Hope shrugged and wavered a flat palm in a so-so gesture to mean “the usual”. Ghost snorted and nudged Hope away from the sink so they could start washing the vegetables. It still took Hope by surprise that Ghost was tall enough to even reach the sink. Just a month before, the Mask Maker had finished crafting an adolescent mask for Hope’s littlest sibling. They came up to Hope’s ribs now, and looked quite a bit like Hornet, with a slightly more angular mask and sloping horns. Except, the side of their mask also sported small ridges that hinted at longer spines in the future – similar to the Shade Entity Hope had seen in the realm of Void.

“Wasn’t Scarlet helping you?”

Hope just lifted their hand towards the chaos in explanation and Ghost rolled their eyes under their mask.

Finding the coffee had turned dark, Hope pushed down the strainer on the press and added a few spoonfuls of the brew to the batter, along with a good bit of cocoa powder, sugar, and an egg. The bowl had small grooves in the bottom like a screw that Hope could slide into similar slots carved into a heavy base that sat on the counter, which in turn held the bowl in place while they stirred the batter. Their prosthetic arm was good at holding some things, but at this angle they couldn’t get the right support from it to hold mixing bowls stationary. Hornet had actually helped come up with this solution so Hope could cook on their own.

“Ew, you added coffee to the cake?”

Hope jumped, not having realized Scarlet had appeared behind them.

“I thought I smelled that awful bean juice,” Hornet observed, handing upside-down from the ceiling by a thread of silk. Hope narrowed their eyes at their sisters, tempted to swat at them with the batter-covered spoon.

“It can’t be that bad,” Ghost signed and shook water from their hands. Before Hope could move to block them, Ghost dipped a finger in the batter and stuck it under their mask. They went straight in surprise, eyes wide.

“Well,” demanded Scarlet, practically twisting around Hope to see Ghost’s hands as they signed.

“It’s really good!”

“No way,” Hornet exclaimed. Without hesitation, Scarlet snatched the wooden spoon from Hope’s hand and danced away as she licked it.

“By the Heart, that _is_ good!”

She laughed as Hope lunged to seize the spoon back from her. With a wicked grin, she tossed it to Hornet, who caught it with a thread and skittered away. A pleased hum followed shortly after and Hope strode around the counter, standing up straight so they could glare over the edge of the loft at Hornet sitting primly on top of Ghost's desk. She waved the spoon at them tauntingly.

“This is pretty tasty!” she complimented, giving the spoon another lick. “Do we really have to bake the cake before we eat it?”

“Yes,” Hope signed impatiently. They grabbed at her, but Hornet threw the spoon over their mask and hopped back out of reach. Hope spun to find Ghost now holding the spoon. What followed was a frantic game of keep-away as the three siblings worked together to keep Hope running between them, trying to catch the spoon as they threw it over, under, and around their scrabbling sibling. Eventually the initial irritation that had smoldered in Hope’s belly shifted to glee as they hopped around and chased their giggling siblings. Ghost had a tendency to cloak themself in void to dash through Hope if they got too close, while Scarlet was more than happy to vanish in a burst of flame. Hornet was simply fast, able to pull herself around in nearly any direction at a moment’s notice by her thread. But, at last, one of them slipped up. In all of the chaos, much of the furniture had been knocked around and Ghost stumbled over a displaced chair at the end of one of their shade-cloaked dashes, nearly falling flat on their mask. At the same time, Hornet had swung in on a thread to avoid Hope’s desperate grab. She crashed into the stumbling Ghost and the two of them fell to the floor in a snarl of thread. With the two of them occupied, Hope turned their attention to the laughing Grimmchild. Faster than a blink, Hope snagged a startled Scarlet around the waist while she was distracted by her sibling’s mishap. With one sister restrained, Hope blanketed themself in void and teleported behind Hornet and Ghost, and simply used their larger body to fall across them. All three of siblings squawked in complaint as Hope squashed them to the floor, effectively pinning the three of them with their body.

“Hope, that’s not fair!” whined Scarlet, squirming in their grip. Hope just laughed and nuzzled their mask against hers.

“Alright, alright, you caught us,” Hornet wheezed, trapped somewhere under both Ghost and Hope. She was panting for breath, but small bursts of laughter kept cutting her off as she tried to negotiate. “You can let us go now.”

Nope. Hope shook their head and squeezed the three of them tighter as they trembled with laughter. This was nice. This carefree mischief, so different from the life Hope had lead before. A sudden wave of affection washed through them and Hope held their siblings as tight as they could while a happy, rumbling purr vibrated in their chest. They endeavored to never let their siblings go.

They eventually did, of course. But only after Scarlet promised to clean off the scorch marks around the house. And Hornet swore to help pick up the scattered furniture. And Ghost assured them that they would help Hope finish cooking. Before long the cake was finally in the oven, a hearty vegetable stew was bubbling merrily on the stove, and the four siblings were lounging in a newly reorganized living room. Hope had made everyone steaming mugs of hot cocoa; except for themself, who sipped on the leftover coffee they’d brewed for the cake.

Hope’s chest still felt warm and tight, and they almost felt close to tears at the affection they held for their siblings as they joined the three of them on the floor, sprawling around a board game. This was exactly the life Hope had always dreamed of having. A life where they could be safe, and warm, and loved.

A loud cry of dismay drew Hope out of their reverie as Scarlet glared at Hornet, who had just sent one of the Grimmchild’s pieces back to start. Hope chuckled silently to themself as they drew a card and amended their thoughts. It was far louder and more chaotic than they ever could have imagined. This was not exactly how they dreamed life could be.

It was so, so much better.

**Author's Note:**

> I probably should have waited to post this until after finishing _A Fragile Hope_ but damn it these characters deserve to be happy, and I don't know how long the fix-it fic is going to take to write. 
> 
> Hope y'all enjoyed!


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